Neighborhoods
of  Raleigh

Boylan Heights was one of Raleigh's first planned suburban neighborhoods. It was established in 1907 on the former plantation lands of William Montford Boylan's estate. It was an ideal middle-class neighborhood through the 20th century. It also held a restrictive deed covenant that prohibited Black residents from occupying its land; Boylan Heights was one of the first Raleigh neighborhoods (alongside Forest Park and Glenwood) to codify African American exclusion from housing into law.¹

Chavis Heights, Raleigh's first public housing project, was built as a Black neighborhood on Watson's Field in 1940. It is named after John Chavis (c.1763 -1838), a free Black man who fought in the Revolutionary War and became a minister, teacher, and activist in North Carolina. Home to John Chavis Memorial Park, built in 1937 as a "separate but equal" park for Black families to the Whites-only Pullen Park.²

A 14-acre plantation was sold as New Bern Avenue divided the plantation's land into two freedman's villages: Idlewild and Cotton Place. Cotton Place separated the antebellum mansion of Idlewild Plantation from the freedmen housing developments.³

Once Indigenous land and then the Spring Hill plantation tended by enslaved African Americans for 150 years, this land became the site of North Carolina's first mental health facility from 1856-2012. The City of Raleigh purchased the land to create a public park that honors the complex past of this land and serves all Raleigh residents with sweeping green fields, events, music festivals, and iconic sunflowers every summer.⁴

Five Points is a "meta" neighborhood formed in the 1910's-20's comprised of Hayes Barton, Bloomsbury, Georgetown, Vanguard Park, and Roanoke Park neighborhoods. Five Points grew from the Glenwood Avenue streetcar line from downtown and joined Raleigh's second wave of white suburban neighborhoods.⁵

The Glenwood and Brooklyn neighborhoods (referred to now as Glenwood-Brooklyn) were largely mixed-race working and middle class Raleigh residents. The neighborhood marked the beginning of the suburbanization of land north of Raleigh's city limits.⁶

Once the start of a key streetcar line to Raleigh's growing northern neighborhoods, this area has grown to become Raleigh's nightlife district. Restaurants, cafe's, galleries, clubs, apartments, and small business line this buzzing neighborhood.⁷

Named after Sir Walter Raleigh's English homeplace, Hayes Barton was (and remains) Five Points' most prestigious neighborhood with large land parcels that lend an estate-like positioning to its houses. Its elevated positioning in the Northwest of the city make a stark contrast to the lower lying, flood-prone, smaller, and cheaper parcels allotted in the historically Black neighborhoods to the Southeast.⁸

One of about 13 freedman's villages that appeared in Raleigh during the Reconstruction area. Located in a low-lying area south of Oakwood and north of New Bern Avenue, Hungry Neck neighborhood was home to primarily Black blue-collar workers.⁹

A 14-acre plantation was sold as New Bern Avenue divided the plantation's land into two freedman's villages: Idlewild and Cotton Place. The Idlewild community grew around St. Augustine's University (not in the scope of the map) and was home to many lower and middle class Black families. Many who lived in Idlewild were former enslaved people or the first generation of people born free.¹⁰

Mordecai (pronounced Mor-duh-key) Place's history starts with Joel Lane, who built what is now known as Mordecai house for his family in 1785 on plantation lands. Joel went on to donate the lands that founded Raleigh in 1792. Martha Mordecai, a decendant of Joel Lane, sold a large portion of her lands to real estate developers in 1922 but stipulated that Black residents not live on those lands aside from 18 acres next to the railroad. Multiple historic residences (including Pres. Andrew Johnson's birthplace) were moved to the Mordecai house grounds in the late 1900's.¹¹

The development of Oakwood began right after the Civil War on a tract of land donated by the Mordecai family, making Oakwood the largest and oldest of Raleigh's historic neighborhoods. The only intact 19th century neighborhood in Raleigh, Oakwood's streets are lined with Victorian era homes. When the government announced plans for a major thoroughfare that would cut through the neighborhood, a cohort of Oakwood residents banded together and thwarted those plans. Many historically Black and lower class neighborhoods in Raleigh, such as Smoky Hollow, were not as fortunate.¹²

One of Raleigh's principal antebellum Freedman's villages, Oberlin Village was founded in 1870 and grew to house over 1,000 residents who were formerly enslaved. By 1891, the village had stores, churches, two schools, and a vibrant Black community with upwards of 90 landowners. Due to years of urban renewal and gentrification, Oberlin Village has largely disappeared. Organizations are fighting to preserve the homes and artifacts that remain of this extraordinary neighborhood.¹³

Named after the Revolutionary-era Abolitionist and Freemason Grand Master Prince Hall, this neighborhood flourished after Shaw University's establishment in 1865 attracted freed Black residents to Southeast Raleigh. It's also located a few blocks below East Hargett Street's "Black Main Street" that grew and thrived during the early 1900's.¹⁴

Named Smoky Hollow because of the fog of train smoke that settled over the bottom land, this area was home to working class Black and white Raleigh residents alike. The neighborhood was destroyed by "urban renewal" in the 1960's. It is reemerging today as a hip, dense residential housing area abutting the popular Glenwood South.¹⁵

South Park started to develop just after the Civil War. It was home to Black professionals who worked at Shaw University, pastored churches, owned businesses, or served as community leaders through the late 1800's and first decades of the 1900's. Though it was considered one of the "largest and historically relatively intact urban Black residential and cultural concentrations in North Carolina" by 1990, few of the local historic buildings were saved as downtown Raleigh pursued urban renewal.¹⁶

Formerly "Cameron Village" after the largest plantation owner east of the Mississippi River, the Village District was North Carolina's first mixed-use subdivision. The eponymous retail center was (and remains) a major draw for grocery shopping, boutiques, restaurants, and event spaces within walking distance of the sprawling homes surrounding. A once-vibrant underground complex of shops and music clubs sits dormant underneath the streets of the sunny shopping center.¹⁷

The railroad came to Raleigh in 1854, cutting through the Southwest region now known as the Warehouse District or, more formally, the Depot Historic District. Through the trains, Raleigh became a wholesale distribution center through the 1910's-20's. Goods for and from these trains filled warehouses now iconic to the district. Today, the area is still home to Raleigh's train station and the warehouses host residential apartments, museums, art galleries, shops, and restaurants.¹⁸